Run With The Pack
by RoarendDarkhowl
Summary: The one in which the fox kit isn't alone, but runs with the a pup that is almost as lonely as he is. The one in which the fox kit grows smart, strong, and confident with the pup to support him. The one in which a pack emerges from the Leaf with the strength to run unopposed under the moon-lit sky. The one in which the fox emerges to lead with the guidance of the wolf. Naru? OC?


Disclaimer: **Hello, all! This is Roarend Darkhowl with my first story on this site so far. I've been writing for a while by myself for practice and thought what better way to measure if you're getting better than having fellow writers and readers look over your work. I got the inspiration for this story after noting how little attention in the series that the Inuzuka clan is given despite their awesomeness (my opinion) and similarities drawn between them and Naruto. From those thoughts an idea was born and this is where that idea has lead. I hope you enjoy and I appreciate any input/opinions you might have on it.**

 **I do not own Naruto.**

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Run With the Pack

Chapter 1: Pack Outcast

It was a late afternoon in the Inuzuka compound in the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Konohagakure no Sato. The children of the village were returning home after a long day of schooling, chattering excitedly for the upcoming break.

Inuzuka Hakari was once again making a menace of himself amongst the clan grounds, to the dismay of his fellow Inuzuka. He'd shown no mercy this time, not that he normally did but this time was something special. He'd done a number on the kennels especially and the clan dogs wouldn't be able to stop scratching for a week. Three different buildings would need a fresh coat of paint after this and that wasn't getting started on what he'd done to the clan-meeting hall.

The seven-year-old wasn't one to pull punches at the best of times, but he'd really hacked off a lot of Inuzuka this go 'round. There was a lot of angry and viscous ninja chomping at the bit to get their hands on him, ninken included. However, there was a problem for one of the greatest tracking clans in the Elemental Nations…they couldn't find the wayward youngster.

That's what led to this, Inuzuka Tsume, clan head of the Inuzuka having a mob of irate shinobi clamoring for her attention as they aired their grievances against the pup…not that they did so without some degree of fear for their lives. The head of the clan was an intimidating person to be around, her feral appearance and wild eyes normally a deterrent to casual conversation. Her rough demeanor and coarse language even further accentuated this, which allowed her to lead the clan with a firm, if not iron, hand.

Tsume sighed as she fielded one complaint after another about the actions of the lone child, some of which made her upset while others made her want to laugh. She didn't hold back when those came along either, she didn't stand on formality in her own den, she wasn't a damn Hyūga! However, this was not how she envisioned her day going after training with her ninken Kuromaru earlier.

She had pups at home alone to take care of and her daughter was graduating soon, to boot.

She didn't want to leave Hana alone with her little brother for too long. Not only did her daughter need the time to study and train for the upcoming graduation exam, Kiba was also getting into a rather important stage in his rearing. He'd just started the stage for preparing him to speak with and care for his partner. He was going to be starting the Academy himself after the next break, so he needed all the instruction he could get. She wanted nothing more than to oversee this herself, so Tsume resolved to hasten this assembly along.

"Alright, alright! I get it! Everybody, pipe the hell down!" She growled irritably to emphasize her words, causing the other Inuzuka to retreat somewhat. She smiled somewhat crookedly, which made many of them break out into sweats. "Now, I understand everyone has a problem with the runt, so I will personally handle his punishment. Now, if you'd rather avoid joining him, I suggest you GET LOST!" She'd shouted the last words, her eyes piercing anyone brave enough to meet them.

Not a second after she'd finished speaking, the meeting hall had cleared out leaving her alone.

Tsume sighed again, resolving herself to wait. She'd already sent Kuromaru out earlier to retrieve the illusive gaki, so for now she allowed a weary smile to cross her face as she observed firsthand the results of a child's imagination at work. Everyone had had to stand in a crowd before her honorary seat in the hall, not a single one of them daring to seat themselves, except one foolish civilian who worked as a butcher.

Tsume chuckled to herself uncharacteristically as she recalled how the chair beneath him had collapsed. He'd tried to catch himself on the long table before him, but that had buckled under his weight as well. His floundering and cursing had brought a laugh out of many of the Inuzuka there until they realized what had happened.

Further inspection of the pieces of furniture had revealed the removal of all its nails.

This had been done to every single seat and table in the hall barring Tsume's own. Apparently, even Hakari didn't risk the personal wrath of the clan leader. She was somewhat impressed by the fact that he'd managed to remove them all while leaving them in their upright positions. This showed a good deal of know-how at sabotage for someone so young and not even a ninja-in-training yet.

However, this feat's impressiveness couldn't dwarf her continued awe at his ability to evade all attempts at tracking by their clan. It had been several hours since the deeds completion, by their tracker's reckoning, and yet no one in the compound had caught a single whiff of Hakari. Not only that, but whenever anyone dedicated themselves to sniffing him out they immediately stumbled into yet another prank.

Namara's presence in the hall resulted in mocking when he walked in smelling of rotten eggs.

All in all, Tsume was sure Kuromaru would find him, as he hadn't returned without him yet. She had to wonder if that wasn't by design, though. The only ones so far capable of detecting and finding the gaki were Tsume or Kuromaru. She'd never actually caught the youngster's scent either as he'd just walk up to turn himself into her. Kuromaru reported the same thing happening with him.

It hadn't always been this way, she reflected, her patience beginning to wear thin as she awaited her partner's return. She remembered a thin, pale boy with a shock of brown hair, bruised and dirty, looking up at her with no small degree of fear. He'd never shown any degree of talent or even courage a few years back, any innocent wonder and childish daring beaten out of him.

Tsume's claws dug into the rough wood of her chair's arms as she recalled those days.

Hakari was the clan's pariah. Just the thought of her clan abandoning a member of the pack, no matter the circumstances, made Tsume sick to her stomach. However, that's exactly what happened after that fateful day, October 10, seven years ago. The Kyubi attacked that day, the day that Tsume lost her mate…and the day that Hakari had lost both of his parents.

He was the only child of the Inuzuka to be completely orphaned by the Demon Fox's attack.

Every one of the clan's children had retained one parent, no matter what condition they might've been in afterwards, with the except of Hakari. It normally wouldn't have been a problem, as the pack takes care of its own after all. However, not a single Inuzuka, baring Tsume herself, wanted to adopt baby Hakari. He'd been born earlier that morning and no one had seen him yet except his parents.

Tsume still remembered how she, a promising Chunin at the time, had seen his mother bravely standing alongside his father. No matter how much he protested at her weakened state, she'd only growled at him about defending the village. He'd back down only because of the Fox's abrupt appearance and subsequent attack. She gulped convulsively as she remembered the rage and anguish on Inuzuka Gaku's face after his mate received a backhand by one of the Fox's tails that sent her through a tree.

He'd flown into a frenzy and attacked the Fox with reckless abandon, ignoring his injuries in his grief-driven anger. Tsume had lost sight of him at that point—her own mate's subsequent death soon after taking priority—but she'd heard him plenty during the defense of the village, his tortured howling sending a shudder down her spine even now in remembrance. They found him dead after the battle, his face twisted into a rictus of pain and two large puncture marks in his upper body, one mangling his arm and the other pierced deeply into his chest.

Tsume was the one given the task of bringing baby Hakari to the clan compound after that.

She growled and stood up to begin pacing, her rage from that moment translating to restless energy. The many haunted looks everyone suffered from after losing so many family members, combined with the news of the Yondaime's death made her hesitate to ask anyone to look after the baby. As her own parents had died to the ninja lifestyle they all lived, she felt some small empathy with the babe's situation. So, she'd persevered for the sake of pup in her arms.

However, the first time she'd stopped to ask, she'd been stunned and revolted by what happened.

The woman's name was Kuki, widowed by the Fox's attack Tsume figured that taking care of a baby might be just the thing she needed to get back on her feet. So imagine her shock when, after catching sight of the baby looking at her during the proposal, Kuki had lashed out at her with a growl. This, and Tsume's subsequent dodge, had drawn the attention of every member in the compound at the time.

After that, Kuki had declared in a loud voice, shrill with hysterical grief, that the baby was another demon spawn just like the damned Kyubi child. She'd pronounced to the entire clan compound that she'd rather be dead than serve as a mother to the cursed child, entreating everyone to look at the mark the demon had left on Hakari. Her following rant on the tainted baby and the demon boy that the Yondaime sealed the Kyubi into had attracted the attention of passing ANBU, who'd immediately apprehended her for disobeying the newly re-instated Sandaime Hokage's order.

Unfortunately, the woman's crazed words had found root in the grieving clan member's minds.

Tsume sighed and fell back into her seat as she recalled all the refusals to adopt Hakari she received following that. She'd been enraged by all those willing to abandon a clan member. She herself had looked herself for signs of any kind of demonic corruption as the baby cried in her arms from all of the hostility directed at it. She hadn't found any and declared them all fools, promising the boy she'd make sure he was all right. He'd stopped crying as she spoke soothingly to him, opening his eyes and shocking her…

The sound of one the meeting hall's door slamming open jogged Tsume out of her thoughts.

Kuromaru paced to her side, sitting at her side when he climbed up to the dais the clan where head's seat was. Hakari followed behind the large, black dog—snickering once on the way when he caught sight of the collapsed desk and chair—and he nodded to Tsume as he stopped before her. _Definitely not the same child,_ Tsume mused to herself as she allowed irritation clearly show on her face.

The pathetic image of the boy she'd remembered earlier didn't compute to how the boy had changed in the last two years. Where he was once pasty, thin, and dirty he was now tanned, lean, and without a hair out of place. His demeanor had also changed, for the better in Tsume's opinion. Where once he held his head low in submission with his ragged, brown hair covering his face, he now held his head high with the corner's of his mouth turned up and his spiky locks hanging down to his shoulders in a wild mane.

However, there was one thing that was fundamentally different in about him.

She could remember exactly why he hid his face behind his hair, he was afraid of making anyone angry with him if they saw them. He never used to look directly at anyone if he could help it, too scared to meet his or her gaze. Not at any longer it seemed, as he looked proudly into his clan leader's eyes with his own and she suffered momentary déjà vu. They were the same eyes he'd looked at her innocently with as a baby, now twinkling with mischief and pride.

However, it was these same eyes that had had him labeled a cursed child or demon in disguise.

The pupil was dark brown, almost black, and slit slightly like how the eye of an Inuzuka were when under the clan's **Shikyaku no Jutsu (Four Legs Technique)**. However, it was the iris that put anyone who met his eyes on edge, the very thing that had set Kuki off so many years ago. It was deep yellow, standing out starkly against the whiteness of his sclera and gave him feral looks that Tsume at her worst couldn't match.

He'd seemed to embrace his wilder side, finding comfort in his skin and with his eyes. His attire enhanced this newfound comfort even further. Hakari wore a black shirt with a brown utility vest like a Chunin would wear over it, his dark brown pants were held up by a leather belt festooned with pouches and studded by fangs from various animals.

The most off-putting addition to his looks came from the markings on his face. Every Inuzuka, ninja or not, was marked by the clan as a member of the pack at the age of six. Most of them were marked with the standard fangs of the Inuzuka in red or purple. However, maybe in another action to set himself aside as different, Hakari had given himself shadows around his eyes in addition to the triangular fangs.

The shadows gave his eyes an even wilder look, if that was possible, like a predator on the prowl. Tsume has markings over her eyes as well in the traditional red of the Inuzuka, but Hakari's encircled both eyes. This predatory image enhanced the triangular fang marks that jutted down from his cheekbones to base of his jaw. However, the real clincher was that he'd done it all in the color black, giving his eyes a bit of a glow to them and making his fangs all the more intimidating.

All in all, the gaki wasn't the same person he was two years ago, and that bothered Tsume.

"So, the great Hakari himself decides to finally grace us with his presence, aren't I honored?" Tsume said, sarcasm lacing her words as she drilled Hakari with a glare to show him how fucked he was. He suffered it rather well, breaking into a mischievous smile and rolling his neck with one hand.

"I figured you'd suffered enough, Tsume-baachan. I'm sure the mutts have been giving you a hard time, eh?" He'd said all of this easily enough, daring to come to the bottom of the dais. His words seemed to reinforce Tsume's thoughts that he was letting them find him, but his eyes flashed with glee when he mentioned the trouble he'd caused, as if sharing a joke with the clan head.

Tsume couldn't keep her glare up, reminded as she was that she was the closest thing that the boy had in a parent. Truthfully, he hadn't done anything that wasn't fixable, but she kept a stern tone as spoke to him. "Damn right they have, gaki! I've been up to my muzzle in bitching since I got back from training and I hear that you're the cause! Care to explain why I shouldn't have Kuromaru and the others use you as a chew toy?"

Hakari's eyes slid to those of Kuromaru as if he was the butt of a joke at this statement, however Tsume was confused when her partner just growled and turned his head away from the kid. "I would like to say I'm sorry, baachan…I really would like to, but I can't as that would be a lie." He laughed to himself as Tsume grinded her teeth together, ready to batter the brat into oblivion.

Hakari, now standing up straight with his smile gone and his eyes serious as they stared into her own, forestalled her from this action. He inclined his head to her—a portion of her mind noticed he didn't bow to her as he used to when they spoke—and spoke as seriously as a seven-year-old could. "I'm willing to accept any punishment you see fit for these actions, Tsume-san. As it is, I will not apologize for them. I don't regret doing them and I don't feel sad for those angered by them. They have done worse for much longer, after all…"

He growled the last words quietly to himself, but Tsume was still able to hear them. This caused her to feel many things: anger at her clan's mistreatment of a pack member, impressed and somewhat concerned over his impenitence for his fellow Inuzuka, and proud of his fearless acceptance of the consequences for his actions. Still she was clan head and being clan head meant that she had to dole out the penalties whenever an Inuzuka made an infraction.

"I see, I guess I have no choice in the matter. Hakari Inuzuka…" As she began dictating his sentence, Tsume released a sliver of killing intent focused towards him to lend power to her words. "…as punishment for your actions against the clan, you're sentenced to a month of cleaning up after the dogs in the kennels at the end of the day." By his rocking heels and bitten lip, he got the unseen message of _don't fuck up again_!

Hakari composed himself somewhat and incline his head once more. "Hai, Tsume-san."

Somewhat satisfied by his response, she let him go on his way. However, before he left she realized that she was now able to smell him, but before she could ask him how he'd eluded tracking all day, he slammed the door to the meeting hall behind him. Caught up in her thoughts, she hadn't noticed the impish look on his face just as he grabbed the door's handle.

The resulting chairs and desks falling apart drowned out Tsume's curses as Hakari got away.

OOOOOO

Well, that wasn't so bad. He'd managed to get out unscathed and with a chore that wouldn't impact his schedule too much. Although, that feeling that Tsume-baachan had given off at the end had almost made him bite his tongue. He wasn't home free yet though, as much as he would like to be.

"Well, well. If it ain't the troublemaker himself fresh from his scolding. I wonder what kind of punishment Tsume-sama gave him?"

"Whatever it was, it's too good for an urchin like him."

"Yeah, especially after all the grief he's given us!"

"I wish Tsume-sama would think about how we feel…letting that kid do as he pleases."

The usual barrage of unpleasantness came at him from all sides, many of the words accompanied by the growling of ninken or even their owners. He tuned it all out, as he had many time before. Letting the dogs talk amongst themselves and blow off their steam, otherwise they'll come searching for trouble later after they're drunk.

He'd learned that lesson early on, not to open his mouth without reason.

That didn't mean he wouldn't mind knocking their uncoordinated asses to the ground if they did come knocking. He'd be all over that, it wasn't like they weren't the only ones that needed to blow off steam. Hell, he'd gone completely nuts with his sabotage in the compound today and still wasn't completely satisfied.

The losers that came seeking him out were usually the gullible civilians and the young toughs looking to throw around their weight. They'd yell and scream outside the small one-room that Tsume-baachan allowed him after he'd turned five, writing things in spray paint and throwing rocks at the walls. They'd get bored soon and leave, talking themselves up about scaring the 'tainted mutt'.

Of course, if he ever _was_ at that house he'd probably beat the snot out of them.

Sadly, he only ever came back there to eat and sleep. This was the reason when he reached that sad, little shack, vandalized and depressing as it was, he just walked on by. He still had some business to tend to before turning in, but as late as it was he'd only be able to take care of it just before he ate and turned in for the night.

Still, he pressed on, the dimming night not causing him any fear as he relied on his nose to track out of the compound's edge into the forest that surround the village, interior and exterior. This one happened to be the deeper section of Konoha's interior forest, where many of the Nara's deer roamed. However, within its depths it also held a secret place…well, with Konoha being as old as it was, he was sure it held a few more places that are secret.

This was a secret place particular to him and his metamorphosis the last two years, well not exactly two.

He momentarily growled to himself as he recalled how he'd channeled his rage and sadness into those productive little distractions from earlier…but still so much of it remained. He'd woken up this morning with little hope, but after seeing no one stop to give him nothing more than a passing glare like usual, he had quickly resigned himself to make something of his pain.

He moved further until he reached a small clearing where the tops of the trees still covered most of the sky, except for a slight opening that let the light from the encroaching moon spill through. In the middle of this open ground, a tiny two-story house stood. It was overgrown with creepers and looked to be sinking, as the front steps were slightly higher than flush with the door. The siding had fallen off in some places and the chimney had collapsed as the house sank, but Hakari had one thought as he stepped up to the dilapidated building.

'I'm home'.

He stepped inside without hesitation, immediately facing a set of dusty stairs that led to the second-story, an entryway on either side of him, and a corridor that ran parallel to the stairs seeming to lead further into the house. He walked down the corridor familiarly, paying the side rooms a passing glance and noticing nothing was out of place.

One was a foyer, with a table that looked like a stiff breeze would knock it over, a couch that's cushions packed a nose tingling amount of dust, and several chairs of differing levels of comfort circling it. A large cracked mirror, with gold trimming in the shape of dragons took up the wall opposing the entrance, his eyes flickering to it as his choppy appearance passed over it.

The other room was an equally dusty and quaint dining room that had a second door leading off the other side of it. It had several chairs carved with swirls and a large oaken table that looked like the sturdiest thing in the house, maybe with the house included! Along two walls were two large display cases with broken glass and ornate plate ware strewn around inside them. A few landscape pieces hung loosely off the walls in here, however with the dust stubbornly grimed on it was a hassle trying to figure out what places they were supposed to depict.

Hakari blew past all this, moving into an open area that held a living room and kitchen. The kitchen had several doorways leading into it, barring the one he'd just used, there was one leading to the dining room, one serving as a back entrance, and another leading down into a basement. An island took up the center of the kitchen with cupboards and utilities scattered throughout.

The living room held what looked like a converted office space beside the collapsed fireplace another couch of shorter length, and an armchair. Strewn with papers and scrolls, the office space consisted of a desk with several cubbies built into it, an actually clean chair with wheels that didn't actually move, and a lamp with a working bulb, which he switched on before sitting down before it.

Hakari knew he'd end up downstairs again later at some point, but for now, he gently sat in the somewhat stable chair. He habitually reached out a hand towards a faded picture that was wedged alongside a scroll in one of the cubbies. He looked at it for a long moment, his fingers occasionally trailing across the surface as an unreadable emotion crossed his face, before he nodded assuredly to himself.

Setting that aside for now Hakari picked up one of the innocuous pieces of paper on the desk and continued his reading from his last visit. 'The basis of Inuzuka Taijutsu starts in the early development of the practitioner. At a young age, Inuzuka clan members are taught a fighting style passed down from the ages when we still ran with wolves and hunt for our food. This style of fighting has no name, or if it did it has been lost to time, but it is a simple style designed to establish a foundation from which to build. The style focuses on training hand-eye coordination, exerting one's body, and whetting the child's undersized claws to cause harm instinctually.'

Hakari continued reading in this same vein, his eyes darting across the page rapidly drinking it all in as his free hand twitched whenever he read over a particularly descriptive part. Summarily, this scroll described the early style that taught Inuzuka pups how to hit an opponent in the most painful and obstinate way. It capitalized on the easy aggression and fierce pride that most Inuzuka retained from their territorial pack days before Konoha.

Hakari perused this scroll for a while, making notes on another piece of paper that had also been there already, his pen scratching across it and the shuffling of the scroll the only noises breaking the silence of the ruined home. After much studying of the scroll's depths, Hakari leaned back in the chair slowly, not wanting to tip it over with his stretching.

'There is no honor amongst shinobi, but there is a vicious finesse when it comes to beating your opponent into submission or even to death. This is the fourth scroll about the clan and the first about its taijutsu that I've read. It's all really interesting stuff…but it just reinforces what I already know about fighting for real…the win is the only thing that matters and it doesn't matter how pretty you get the job done.'

Hakari went to lean forward again, but the wheels of the chair suddenly decided to come unstuck for the first time in forever. As the chair slid forward from underneath him, his top half fell backwards abruptly. In an attempt to regain his balance, he lashed out his legs and hooked one under the lip of the desk, leaving himself teetering with only two of the chair's legs on the ground. Before Hakari's heart had even stopped pounding and he could congratulate himself on the save, he heard a grinding noise and was once again in free-fall.

 _Crash!_ "Ow! Son of a bitch!"

Hakari came up grabbing his head in pain, as he'd been unlucky enough to hit the leg of the living room's table. As he allowed himself a moment to curse at the pain, he noticed that a thin slab of wood had come unattached from the underside of the desk. Clearing his head, Hakari was able to make out the symbol of the Inuzuka and another symbol carved to the wood side-by-side.

Reaching out, Hakari ran his hands over the wood, tracing his hands through the grooves of the Inuzuka symbol before taking a closer inspection of the other. It was the head of a howling canine, the point of view from the side allowing the ears and eyes to be visible as the muzzle was tilted towards the sky. The eyes were slits that seemed to gaze judgmentally outwards and the ears were perked as if from a sudden sound.

This symbol wasn't recognizable as one of the clans or facilities of Konoha, so that meant it could be two things. The first, and the unlikelier of the two, was that it was a symbol from outside Konoha. The Inuzuka were infamous for many things, but a trait of theirs that was unquestioned was their loyalty. They were one of the last clans to devote to the village, but they'd also were the one that boasted the least amount of missing-nin. Therefore, there was a rather scarce chance that another clan or faction had held sway amongst any of the clan members at some point.

The second option was that it might have been something older than Konoha. A relic of a past where clans were divided, where powers rose and fell rapidly, and where the boundaries of chakra were pushed on a daily basis. The fact that it was carved alongside the Inuzuka symbol meant that this symbol might've been associated with them long ago. However, the symbol itself didn't shed any light on its purpose or who it could've belonged to.

The symbol held no confusion for Hakari, though. He actually chuckled to himself at an unseen signal, his hand tracing this other symbol as fondly as he had the Inuzuka one. Then an excited grin crossed his face, his attention drawn to the exposed underside of the desk. He reached inside and, after feeling around to get a grip on the item in question, he withdrew a thick folder with the same symbol that had been carved into the wood emblazoned on the front.

He went to open the folder, but stopped abruptly and seemed to stare at it in annoyance. His expression was soon replaced by a look of realization and he seemed surprised when he looked outside to see the moonlight fading away to true darkness. Making a decision, he unzipped his vest to tuck the folder delicately away, cradling it between it and his shirt. He then snatched the photo from off the desk to give it one more glance, his eyes lingering on it as he stowed it in one of the pockets of his pants.

He stood from the chair and remembered to switch off the lamp, but instead of taking the corridor to the front door, he bypassed it in favor of taking the staircase that lead downwards. The darkness lent Hakari no reassurance in his descent, as he listened to the stairs creak dangerously beneath him. However, he soon remedied that problem, reaching into one of the compartments of his vest to retrieve a lighter that illuminated the stairs beneath him.

Upon reaching the bottom, he habitually turned to his right to light the torch bracket on the wall.

From the light given off by the torch, the now lit room seemed less like a basement and more like excavation site. There was wall-to-wall counter space, each of them with some kind of contraption or ragged tome resting on it, while the walls themselves held tacked excerpts and faded seal designs. But, the centerpiece was the square of exposed earth in the middle of the room, where a stone structure covered in archaic carvings jutted up.

Hakari moved closer to this earthen totem, the designs on it becoming clearer as the distance between them closed. The symbol from before on the wooden slab stood out starkly amongst the harshly hewn lines and cracked rock. The smell of dirt in the air and the flickering of the torch gave the atmosphere a wholly occult feel. Hakari moved to the foot of the pillar without hesitation and let one hand trail down its length as he dropped to his knees.

His lighter still in his hand, he laid a stick of incense into the tin bowl that rest at the base of the stone and lit it. As he placed the lighter away, he reached into his pocket and retrieved the same photo he'd looked at earlier before he bowed his head over it. 'Hey, there guys. I know I haven't been by in a while, I couldn't find a time to come what with my friend and I training to exhaustion to get stronger, not to mention sensei riding me about being more self-su..self-suffish… aw forget it, it means being able to take care of myself without help. Still, those are excuses and I'm sorry for not dropping by sooner.'

Hakari sniffed a bit, allowing the scent of the incense to drive away the ill feelings he felt roiling beneath the surface and the prickling he felt at the corners of his eyes. Those same eyes drank in the faded details of the two people standing together in the picture like a man dying of thirst. They were standing in front of the entrance to the Inuzuka clan compound, with what looked like a festival taking place in the background.

One was a man dressed in the Konoha jōnin uniform. He had the Inuzuka markings on his cheeks, hard black eyes, and swept-back brown hair fell from under his hitai-ate's bandana. The other was a woman in Chunin garb who leaned against the man, his arm curled around her waist. She also had the traditional cheek markings of the Inuzuka, her brown hair done up in ponytail, and her hazel eyes twin pools of happiness. The woman was caught in the act of pushing the man's face away from her own, her other hand tracing the beard on his face as they were frozen mid-laugh.

He stared at the picture for a while longer, turning it over to look at the back occasionally but always returning to front. 'I'm getting stronger everyday like you both wouldn't believe! Oh, Tsume-baachan managed to enroll me so soon enough I'll be starting the Academy, too! I'm looking forward to making a first impression and establishing the pecking order. I'm tired of being on the bottom…I…I know if you both were around I wouldn't be…you'd be seeing me off on my first day…I'd have friends amongst the clan…I hope that…I just hope that I can make you both proud…kaa-san, tou-san.'

' **I'm sure that they already are, pup.'** A disembodied, female voice soothingly spoke up as the tears finally began streaming reluctantly down Hakari's face, bursting forth despite his struggle to keep them down.


End file.
